Closet Catholic in the White House?

UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg: President George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI listen to the U.S. national anthem during a welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington April 16.As if the chattering classes didn’t already have enough to do, there has been some recent debate about whether George W. Bush is, in fact, America’s most Catholic president. Never mind that he’s a born-again Methodist who attends services at an Episcopal church. That’s beside the point, these alleged experts assert, most notably in a recent article in The Washington Post. They contend Bush is a closet Catholic because he surrounds himself with Catholic speechwriters and advisers. They say he has been been a student of the church’s social justice teachings over the last decade, a tutelage instrumental, perhaps, in his AIDS initiative in Africa. They say the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the White House was a meeting of kindred spirits, despite the pontiff’s opposition to the war in Iraq.

In addition to offering Benedict a White House welcome consisting of two 21-gun salutes, two rounds of “Happy Birthday” and the Lord’s Prayer sung by Kathleen Battle, President Bush honored the bishop of Rome by mirroring back some of the pope’s own thinking and bits of rhetoric. He emphasized the sacredness of human life and talked about the need to reject the “dictatorship of relativism,” core beliefs of Pope Benedict. To those who subscribe to the notion that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, President Bush is clearly a big fan of the 81-year-old pontiff.

But is a Catholic wannabe who has never received the church’s sacraments the same thing as America’s first truly Catholic president? Such a question can be interesting to ponder, almost a game. (It’s important not to be too literal and get stuck on the fact that John Kennedy, in orthodox terms, is actually America’s only true Catholic president. The proponents of the Catholic-Bush theory point out that Kennedy, the politician, sought to distance himself from his Catholicism.)

Some people, when faced with the question of President Bush’s inner Catholicity, can only be described as alarmed. “Mother of God, save us!” exclaimed Paul Wilkes, author of 20 books on Catholic topics, when introduced to the idea that George W. Bush may be our most Catholic president. Regaining his composure, Wilkes said he believed President Bush fails the Catholic litmus test because he has allowed America “to be a bully in the world. We have to have a military but we can’t go swaggering around the world with our military. That’s not a Catholic position.”

Wilkes gives his vote for “most Catholic president” to Jimmy Carter, who he said behaved with integrity “before, during and after” his tenure in the White House and has been a man of “peace and reconciliation.”

Some of those who are least willing to accept the notion of President Bush as a de facto Catholic are Democrats who are also Catholic. They say they heard it first two years ago, at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, when President Bush was referred to as the “second Catholic president.”

“It’s not a particularly new story,” sniffed Steve Krueger, spokesman for Catholic Democrats in Washington.

The sticking point for these people is the idea that right-wing Republicans have hijacked Catholic teachings selectively to advance their agenda. Bush might be anti-abortion, therefore in sympathy with Catholicism, but his views on war and his lack of interest in, say, expanding health coverage are in opposition to the church’s tenets. “The ideological right says to be a good Catholic you must be a good Republican,” Krueger said.

What’s more, Krueger said, being a Catholic is more than what you think about certain issues or even theology. “Bush misses the key point of Catholic identity, which is as much a cultural experience as a religious experience,” he said.

The question of President Bush’s Catholic quotient is one that can be answered from many perspectives. Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania and ardent Catholic, was quoted as follows in April 13 article in The Washington Post: “I don’t think there’s any question about it. That’s why I called him the first Catholic president.” But for those who may be less politically motivated, the answer is more complex.

The Post article, by Daniel Burke, a writer for Religion News Service, carried the headline, “A Catholic Wind in the White House.”

Daniel Cowdin, associate professor of religious studies at Salve Regina University, in Newport, R.I., said, “Putting specific issues aside, one way of approaching the question is by asking whether President Bush has performed his duties in a ‘spirit of catholicity.’ I would say, over eight years, he has not. He came into office saying that he would be a ‘uniter not a divider,’ but he has not been a uniter. The major tone of his administration has not been one of finding common ground with those who differ from his views.”

Laura Lloyd is a freelance writer in Kansas City, Mo.

National Catholic Reporter May 2, 2008